The Pirated Onmyoji of the Detective World

Just as the three of them were about to reach the riverbank with Miss Naoko, they heard Miss Naoko's exclamation from ahead.

"Help! It's a mermaid! A real mermaid!"

Her voice was filled with fear and dread.

Then they heard the sound of something falling into the river.

Upon hearing this voice, Kogoro Mouri and his two companions' expressions immediately changed.

Ignoring Ran, who was trembling with fear and panic, Kogoro Mouri and Conan took off running towards the river.

"Mermaid!?"

This...this is impossible!

When they rushed out of the bushes and reached the clearing by the river, they found that Naoko was indeed nowhere to be seen on the bank.

An ominous premonition arose spontaneously.

Both of them instinctively ran towards the river.

Sure enough, in the river, they saw Miss Naoko, whose neck was already wrapped in a safety rope, being swept away rapidly by the current.

Before the two of them could react and grab the safety rope, Ms. Naoko was swept down the waterfall by the current.

Just like the corpse of Miss Sumi that I saw last night.

They were suspended in front of Mermaid Falls.

"!!!"

Both Kogoro Mouri and Conan were completely stunned by what they saw.

……

By the time the two of them pulled Miss Naoko onto the table, Miss Naoko had already lost her life.

However, this is also a matter of course.

After all, even if Naoko didn't drown in the river, being swept down from such a height would have provided enough force to strangle her.

Looking at Naoko's body and recalling the cries for help they had just heard, Kogoro Mouri and Conan both looked extremely grim.

Because they could confirm that they had not seen any suspicious figures on their way there.

The other directions were blocked by extremely dense thickets of bushes, making it impossible for people to pass through.

The opposite bank of the river was a steep cliff, and in the short time it took them to hear Miss Naoko's cries for help and rush out of the woods to the clearing, there was simply not enough time for anyone to climb up the cliff.

As for the river, the current was very rapid, and ordinary people simply could not escape the scene by going against the current.

If you go downstream along the river, given the height of Mermaid Falls, and try to rush down from above, you'll likely end up as a corpse floating on the water below.

In addition, there was nowhere nearby where one could hide in a short time.

In other words, there was no one else present at the scene except for the three of them and the already deceased Ms. Naoko.

but……

How is this possible!

The mysterious death of Miss Naoko has left Kogoro Mouri and Conan in a state of confusion.

Is it possible...

There really are mermaids!

Chapter 472 Was it really just an accident?

It wasn't just Kogoro Mouri and his group who were bewildered.

When the villagers arrived at the riverbank after being notified by Conan, they were stunned and stood there dumbfounded when they saw the lifeless body of Ms. Naoko on the shore.

How is this possible!

Shimabukuro Kimie, who was at home feeling extremely nervous about her plan to kill Naoko that night, also felt a moment of panic when she received a call from Kogoro Mouri and his group.

The voice coming from the phone revealed that it was Conan, the boy who always followed Kogoro Mouri.

The other party did not explain on the phone why she needed to go to the river, but only urged her to put down her work and go to the river where Ms. Shoumei's body was found the night before.

Subconsciously believing that his murder of Saori and Sumi had been exposed, Shimabukuro Kimie also rushed to the warehouse for a quick look.

After all, he had hidden the body of the murdered Kanojo Saori in the warehouse.

As for his purpose, it was naturally to use the corpse of Kanojo Saori to impersonate himself.

She had already planned it all out. After killing Sumi and Naoko, she would create a fire just like the one three years ago, and burn herself to death in the warehouse in front of everyone.

In this way, while clearing themselves of suspicion, they can also successfully disappear from this world.

From then on, there would only be one character on Mermaid Island: "Longevity Granny".

There's no need for me to play two roles anymore.

Just like what her mother did back then.

However, this one glance made Shimabukuro Kimie tremble all over, because the body of Kadokawa Saori, which had been safely hidden in the warehouse, had now completely disappeared.

Is it possible?

Recalling the phone call he had just received informing him to go to the riverbank upstream of Mermaid Falls, Shimabukuro Kimie naturally assumed that after discovering Saori Kadokawa's body, Kogoro Mouri and his group had already concluded that he was the murderer in this series of cases.

To this, Kimie Shimabukuro could only manage a wry smile.

After all, finding Saori Kadokawa's body in her own home's warehouse was a piece of evidence she could no longer conceal.

Even if they can't immediately determine that she is the murderer, once they are under close surveillance by the detectives, they will soon notice the disappearance of "Grandma Longevity".

In this way, it probably won't be long before they figure out that Shimabukuro Kimie and "Grandma Longevity" are probably the same person.

With this thought in mind, Shimabukuro Kimie couldn't quite figure out what kind of mentality she had when she came to the back mountain.

But when she arrived at the riverbank where she had originally planned to kill Sumi herself, she discovered that the situation there was completely different from what she had expected.

Naoko is dead.

Even she, like Shoumei, was strangled by the safety rope along the riverbank and died in the river, swept down into Mermaid Falls.

Then, she learned about the strange process of Naoko drowning in the river from a few words spoken by Kogoro Mouri.

This made Shimabukuro Kimie tremble all over, because it was exactly the same cause of death as Sumi that she had seen last night!

But what she couldn't understand was why both Sumi and Naoko had inexplicably died in the river before she was about to kill them.

At this moment, Shimabukuro Kimie subconsciously recalled the fish tail she had vaguely noticed yesterday when she saw Sumi being splashed into the river by the water.

Could it really be a mermaid?!

An "absurd" thought couldn't help but pop into her mind.

Of course, what she couldn't understand even more was, if it wasn't these detectives, where exactly did Saori's body, which she had hidden in the warehouse, go?

Shimabukuro Kimie's silent and surprised expression naturally caught the attention of Conan and Hattori Heiji, who were standing nearby.

However, neither of them could possibly guess what Kimie Shimabukuro was thinking, so they didn't suspect anything further.

Firstly, both Ms. Sumi, who was discovered last night, and Ms. Naoko, who was just pulled ashore, are childhood friends of Kimie Shimabukuro.

Secondly, people died at Mermaid Falls for two consecutive days, and they were even the lucky ones who were hit by the Dugong's Arrow.

If we also consider Kazuha, who almost fell off a cliff, even the two of them almost believed that there really was such a thing as a mermaid curse.

Of course, another reason is that Shimabukuro Kimie was not the only one who showed this expression; the others who rushed over from the island also showed similar expressions.

Immediately, the crowd began discussing the "mermaid" incident.

During the on-site investigation, Kogoro Mouri and Conan, who could be considered to have "witnessed" the entire process of Naoko's death, also failed to find any useful clues.

Although it is hard to accept, all the evidence at the scene pointed out that Ms. Naoko died in an accident where she fell into the river and drowned.

Just like the death of Miss Kotobuki.

Because they are more willing to believe the more scientific explanation of an accident than the mermaid's curse.

The only person at the scene who knew the truth was Aragaki Yu, who had remained silent the whole time. After all, it was all Senhime's doing.

It would be strange if Conan and his friends could find any clues.

On the other side, seeing Kogoro Mouri and his group's fruitless investigation, Kimie Shimabukuro also had her own thoughts.

Although she was a shrine maiden at the island's shrine, and even as the "Longevity Granny" herself, she was also clear about the legend of the "mermaid skeleton" from back then, she scoffed at the mermaid legends circulating on the island.

But at this moment, her thoughts changed drastically.

A sudden thought crossed her mind: whether it was Saori's body, which she had mysteriously disappeared from the warehouse, or Sumi and Naoko, who had outmaneuvered her and were strangely drowned in the river.

All of this was the work of the mermaid.

That's right, this is the curse from the mermaid!

It's not the myth from Mermaid Island about losing the Dugong's Arrow and incurring a curse, but the real Mermaid Curse!

And the reason why these few people were the ones to be cursed...

This mermaid...